A Powerful Story

About a week ago I read a powerful story on the Huffington Post blog by Christine Schanes about her experience providing end-of-life care to a homeless woman named Karen Lee. In Karen’s final days, Christine took it upon herself to ensure that Karen died the way Karen had asked: with dignity, free of pain and indoors.

Christine beautifully began her post, “There is one certainty in life -- we are all going to die. How and where we die are the only issues.”

I gave a speech last week and quoted some facts from a hospital comparing a “bad” death to a “good” death. Honestly, those terms are in the eyes and voices of the patient – the person – to decide. Your goals, your wishes, your thoughts are just that: yours. At MyDirectives, we believe you should live every day with confidence knowing that, in the case of an emergency, any medical team can know something meaningful about you so they can treat you with the dignity you deserve.

I want to thank Christine for sharing this inspirational story with all of us, and providing a reminder that everyone deserves to receive medical care that makes them comfortable.

Christine’s story about helping someone receive the dignity she deserved at the end of life is similar to so many stories we hear about ensuring everyone gets a voice in their medical care their entire lives. Our good friend Judy said it well in her recent TED Talk: Your life is just that, yours. And we all deserve the respect – no matter our living situation or condition – to make our medical wishes known!

Comments:

Christine Schanes posted at Nov 16 2014 06:19 AM

Thank you for your kind words about my article. I appreciate your efforts to educate people about homelessness. I'd like to learn more about your work. Would you kindly contact me with information about your work? Thanks! Christine